
ICHABOD Codding 



By HANNAH MARIA PRESTON CODDING; WITH AN INTRO- 
DUCTION BY JOSEPH HENRY CROOKER 



[From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1897] 



MADISON 

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 

1898 



ICHABOD Codding 



By HANNAH MARIA PRESTON CODDING; WITH AN INTRO- 
DUCTION BY JOSEPH HENRY CROOKER 



[From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1897] 



MADISON 

State Historical Society ok Wisconsin 

1898 



y7\B. Hl»t.So«, 






ICHABOD CODDING. 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY JOSEPH HENRY CROOKER. 



During a residence of ten years in Madison, it was my lot to 
travel extensively, on various ei'rands over the State of Wis- 
consin. In these travels, I found myself treading in the foot- 
steps of Ichabod Codding. It was seldom that I visited a vil- 
lage or city without making the acquaintance of men and 
women who spoke, with the fervor of intense affection, of this 
heroic apostle of righteousness. Though twenty years had then 
passed since his death, and forty years since his first work in 
this Commonwealth, still, among his numerous friends, I found 
his memory fresh and his name not only revered, but asso- 
ciated with all things that make for the better life. 

The impression which Mr. Codding made upon people was 
peculiarly strong, permanent, and ennobling. The enthusiasm 
which he evoked, the affection which he inspired, the inffuence 
which he exerted, were very remarkable. He took hold of 
people in a masterly manner; I never met in connection with 
any one else, such evidences of personal devotion. Very touch- 
ing to me were the displays of deep feeling on the part of his 
friends, as they showed me old letters and pictures as if the rel- 
ics of a saint — as indeed they were. It has been my good 
fortune to converse with many persons who knew him; and, as 
a rule, I have noted that, before they had talked very long, 
tears filled their eyes and emotion choked their voices. This, 
too, I have seen with hard-headed business and professional 
men, not given to sentimentalism. Mr. Co'dding must have 
been a man of striking personality, to have impressed people so 
deeply; and I gladly put on record this testimony to the wide 



2 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

scope and intense character of his personal influence. It was a 
wide-reaching influence for good, upon large multitudes. Tes- 
timony to this interesting fact is also borne by such well-known 
men as Parker Pilisbury, Charles K. Whipple, Oliver Johnson, 
and others, in letters to me in reference to Mr. Codding, with 
whom they labored, — lettei's which, unfortunately, I caunot pro- 
duce here. 

Ichabod Codding deserves more fame than he has received. 
As will be seen from this interesting memoir, he was a pioneer 
in the temperance reform, almost a martyr to the cause; he was 
a powerful preacher of rational Christianity, when dogmatism 
was very nari-ow and intolerance was very bitter; but most of 
all, he was an eloquent, untiring, and courageous advocate of 
the abolition of slavery, at the very dawn of that great move- 
ment. An early associate of Garrison, a co-laborer with Chase, 
a fellow-worker with Lincoln, it does seem a little strange that 
his name should have been so soon forgotten. If, like his friend 
Lovejoy, he had died earlier at the hands of a mob; if his later 
work had been farther East, nearer the centers of })ublicity; or 
if he had lived twenty years longer, his name would probably 
now be widely known. For Mr. Codding was in many ways a 
great man. Many good judges of oratory, who have heai'd all 
our noted speakers, have told me that, in persuasiveness, few 
equaled him and none surpassed him. He had marvelous success 
in captivating an adverse audience. Many have told me that, 
as young men, they went with others to break up his meetings 
and mob him, but became converts long before he closed speak- 
ing. The work that he did as temperance advocate, as editor, 
as apostle of human rights, and as preacher, was large and 
fruitful. 

The foll9\ving l)i()grai)hieal sketch was written in 18S0-81, 
by his widow, Hannah Maria Pi-Gston Codding, who died in 
1884. It is an interesting chapter in a most interesting his- 
tory of a great struggle. Some parts of it are especially thrill- 
ing. I am glad that this story of his life is to find a place in the 
publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The 
facts of his later years are not given here as fully as they ought to 
be described. For nearly a score of years before his death. 



ICHABOD CODDING. ' 3 

Mr. Codding spent a large part of his time in this State; and he 
contributed mightily to every great and noble interest of this 
Commonwealth. It was in Baraboo that the last six years of 
his life were passed, as pastor of the Unitarian church; it is 
there that his memory is greenest, there that his friends most 
abound. The Free Congregational Church of that city was 
erected as a memorial to him. The name of Codding was once 
on the lips of applauding multitudes; it was greeted far and 
wide with great enthusiasm; it was associated with deep moral 
earnestness in behalf of suffering humanity. His jiame may 
well be preserved by the State Historical Society among the 
honored worthies of Wisconsin. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

BY HANNAH MARIA PRESTON CODDING. 

The commission given by the British crown to Sir William 
Coddington as governor of Rhode Island (dated 1650), also his 
ancient coat of arms, and a portrait of himself, are now in the 
state house at Providence, R. I. Ichabod Codding' was his de- 
scendant in the eighth generation. He was born September 23, 
1810, in Bristol, Ontario county. New York, to which place his 
parents had removed as pioneers from Massachusetts. He was 
the fifth child, — having three brothers and one sister, all of 
whom lived to maturity. His father, Faunce Codding, a sturdy, 
noble character, fell victim to a malignant fever, dying July 29, 
1810 — three months before the birth of this son, whom the 
mother, in her sore anguish and bereavement, named Ichabod, 
" for, " said she, " the glory is departed. " Her widowhood of 
sixty years attested her devotion to the memory of her husband. 
Her family name was Andrews. 

This mother was remarkable not only for her tenderness, but 
for energy, strong common-sense, intellectual vigor, and origi- 
nality, — as well as for patriotic love to her country, and pride in 

' The syllable ton^ in the family name, was dropped about the year 1700. 



4 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

its history. She carefully instilled this into the tender minds of 
her children, by oft-repeated tales of the Revolutionary time 
and war, when at evening the broken circle gathered round the 
broad and kindly hearth. Her intelligence and faithfulness also 
made up to them the deficiency of school advantages. She 
possessed a fund of wit and humor, a brilliant fancy, and 
dramatic power, which were all turned to account in the train- 
ing of her fatherless children. Though poverty narrowed their 
opportunities on all sides, their minds were developed, and 
stored with useful knowledge; their sympathies broadened and 
deepened; self-control, industry, and usefulness, were made 
habitual; the divine law was reverently taught them as the rule 
of life; and religion was regarded as living according to that 
law, rather than as assent to any creed. 

Ichabod's early boyhood was marked by uncommon energy 
and physical activity. He took pride in lifting the heaviest 
weights, in running the swiftest races, and in all feats of 
strength and agility. In wrestling with a lad older than him- 
self, his knee was dislocated; and a long confinement followed, 
in which his love of activity turned heartily to learning. With 
the help of his mother, he acquired the elements of a good edu- 
cation, and became conversant with many books, with the con- 
tents and peculiarities of which he entertained and amused his 
mates, with a rare charm of manner, — to the delight of his 
mother, whose joy it was to see, as she did, his opening promise. 
Responding day by day to iier simple, wholesome, and practical 
teaching, and under the pure influence of a mother's and a 
sister's love, he seems to have been baptized, even while yet a 
boy, with the spirit of philanthropy, and to have entered upon 
his noble career as a reformer. 

At the age of seventeen years, seeing the evils of intemper- 
ance (though ignorant of the great tem})erance movement at the 
East), he drew up a pledge of total abstinence, and won many 
of his young comrades to its support. His first temperance 
lecture, given at that time, is still in possession of his family. 
In its delivery, he evinced the germ of that power in the ex- 
pression of moral truth, which so distinctly marked his life. 
Full of enthusiasm, ho went into the surrounding country a 



ICHABOD CODDING. 5 

youn^ apostle of temperance, and, before he had reached the 
age of twenty-one years, he had given a hundred temperance 
lectures. In one of these early lectures, now extant, he took 
the radical ground that intemperance is a sin against God, and 
must be seen as such and forsaken, before any permanent or 
real reform can be effected in the man; also that the liquor 
trafitic — being an efficient cause of ultimate ruin to the mind, 
body, and soul of those who partake, in sapping the foundation 
of morals, and endangering the permanence of our institutions — 
has no real right to. the protection of law, the object of which 
should be the welfai'e of all. To this very level, popular senti- 
ment in our country is now rapidly rising. 

At the age of twenty years, when, by the power of divine 
truth, spiritual life became to him a conscious reality, its lofty 
<jlaims were so heartily acknowledged that he made the most 
self-sacrificing efforts to live them out, — in the smallest matters 
endeavoring to shun every evil, and limiting himself to the most 
simple and inexpensive dress and living, that he might "let 
his light shine." Soon after this time, Mr. Codding entered the 
academy at Canandaigua, New York, to prepare for college; he 
there gave instruction in the English department, as a means of 
paying his way. Stephen A. Douglas was his fellow student at 
that time. Three years later, Mr. Codding entered Middlebury 
College, Vermont. It was here that the sad story of the Ameri- 
can slave reached his ear, and stirred the deep fountains of his 
tender and compassionate soul. The country was beginning to 
■shake with excitement on the subject, and he could not hush his 
manly sympathies and be silent. Accordingly he gained per- 
mission during his junior year, from the faculty of the college, 
to go out for a few weeks and plead the cause of the slave. 

This was his initiation into the distinctive work of his life; 
his earliest consecration to the cause of liberty. He soon found 
'himself engaged in no holiday service. Furious mobs howled 
on his track; the doors of public halls and chui'ches were closed 
against him; priests and politicians, saints and sinners, all 
joined in fraternal sympathy, and vied with each other to silence 
the young Wilberforce. The faculty of the college took fright, 
lest its reputation should suffer from the unpopularity of such 



6 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

a disturber of the peace of slavei-y, and represented that he 
was a truant from college duties. Learning, on his return, what 
had been done to disgrace him, he went to the authorities of the 
college, and brought them to own the falsehood and to reti-act the 
censure. But although restored to regular standing, his wounded 
spirit forced him to abandon the college where he had been so 
cruelly and basely treated. 

He had entered college with the purpose of becoming a min- 
ister of the gospel, and of going as a missionary to foreign 
lands; but when he saw how the wail of enslaved millions in our 
own land was received by the churches of Christ, — how men 
professing to be followers of the merciful Jesus grew pale with 
rage or fear at the base story of the slave's wrongs, — he, though 
but a youth, saw that their influence helped to rivet the chains 
of slavery upon his fellow-men, and he changed his purpose. 
His work — his life-work — was at his door. 

Now he girded himself for the great anti-slavery conflict. 
With Theodore D. Weld he spent a whole night in prayer for 
divine help, to make the full consecration of all his powers to 
the sacred cause, and for guiding wisdom all the way. With 
this spirit of loyalty to God and love to humanity, he enlisted 
in the service of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which had 
just then entered the field. 

In a letter to his sister, Mrs. H. S. Mason, dated Middle- 
bury, Vermont, August 22, 1836, he says: 

I am engaged to the American Anti-Slavery Society as a public lecturer. 
I feel that I am engaged in a noble, a holy, enterprise. I rsalij' feel, from 
ray heart, unworthy to plead the cause of three millions of my poor down- 
trodden, imbruted fellow-men. But when the mighty champions of Israel 
do not dare to go forth to meet this modern more than Goliath, if it 
please the Almighty, a far less than the boy David will take his sling and 
stone, and go forth to meet him, in the full assurance that he who inspires 
'his heart will direct it to the monster's head. It is an inspiring subject. 
It is enough to entalent the talentless, to give spirit to the spiritless. I 
expect to meet with opposition, porhai)s with niob-violence: but is it not 
good to .say to all, 

"Arise for the forsukon .'<lavo ! 
UiKjii your God forcouraRe call, 

And in liis strength go forth to save." 

About this time, 18.30, Zebina Eastman (now resident in 



ICHABOD CODDING. 7 

Chicago, who was consul to England during the term of Presi- 
dent Lincoln) heard Mr. Codding in Jamaica, on the east side 
of the Green mountains, in one of his earliest speeches in this 
cause. He says: 

Learning that an anti-slavery lecturer was to speak in the old, antique 
meeting house, I went. It was filled, crowded. The man who came into 
the pulpit with the venerable minister, and who filled it that day, was 
Ichabod Codding. His picture is distinctly in my mind, though it is forty- 
five years ago, as he stood there, his face radiant with smiles, humor and 
vivacity. * * * Young Codding did his work well. He brought out the 
"Bible argument" in a clear, logical manner, quoting passage after pas- 
sage to clinch every argument. I was never so interested in a sermon. 
The audience was held in perfect control by his chain of evidence and 
fluent utterance; for even at that early time he manifested that remarkable 
eloquence and power as an orator which, afterwards, so often stirred the 
people of the Western prairies. The next week, I met him at Fayette- 
ville, Vt., where with a faithful few he held a convention. Oscar L. Shaf- 
ter (since chief justice of California, then a law-student and an abolition- 
ist) was there. The president of the convention was the venerable Charles 
Phelps, uncle of Gen. Phelps. Amos Dresser was there, and told his story 
of being publicly whipped in Nashville, Tenn., the year before, — because 
some anti-slavery papers were found in his trunk, and because he had 
been a student at Lane Seminary, of which Dr. Lyman Beecher was presi- 
dent. Mr. Codding made the main speech. It was a portraiture of 
slavery, the sum of all sin and crime — its cruelties, its violation of natural 
and civil rights, and the responsibility of the North in the matter. He 
answered the question so often put then, "Why don't you go South and 
preach ? " 

In a letter, also to his sister, written two years later, Mr. 
Codding says : " It is not only a necessity, but a very great priv- 
ilege, to defend the principle of natural equal rights, which is 
fast gaining ground in the North. The principles of abolition 
are destined to triumph. I dont know ho\v long the Lord will 
have me labor in this particular vineyard. It may be till every 
yoke is broken and the oppressed go free. " 

For five years, he traveled the States of Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, Maine, Connecticut, and New York — giving himself with 
all the ardor of his being to pleading the cause of the dumb, and 
forewarning the people of coming judgments, if oppression, 
should be persisted in, with a heroism and eloquence that has 



8 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

never been surpassed. It was in the second year of this service 
that Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot — a martyr to the freedom of 
the press. Mr. Codding writes: 

I was in Massachusetts, with lecture in hand, when a note was handed 
me, saying "Lovejoy is murdered by an Alton mob ! " My lecture dropped 
from my hand. I had watched with deep solicitude the proceedings at 
Alton, and was not wholly unprepared for such news. Yet I have no 
power now, nor had I then, to portray the effect it produced upon me. I 
felt the inspiration of my departed brother, the martyr spirit, stirring 
within me, and I swore eternal fidelity to the cause of human rights; and 
forgetting my lecture, gave myself to the inspiration of the hour; and vin- 
dicated the right of freedom of speech as God-given, and older than human 
constitutions and human laws, yet in our country secured in both. 

With this fresh consecration, he began his work in Massachu- 
setts. On the opening of his first meeting in Brighton, on a 
Sunday evening, while offering prayer, two strong men seized 
and dragged him down from the pulpit into the aisle, and weVe 
only prevented from delivering him to the mob outside, by two 
young men of the audience, who had known him in college. 
They released him, and compelled the intruders to listen to one 
anti-slavery lecture. In 1838, he went to Maine and had the 
honor of addressing the legislature of that State for three hours, 
on the " Texas question. " It was one of his great speeches, 
and resulted in the practical conversion of more than forty of 
the legislators to the principles he advocated. In Brunswick, 
Maine, he was mobbed. In Calais, where he advertised to give a 
course of anti- slavery lectures, the more violent of the opposi- 
tion called a meeting of the people to warn him out of town; 
Mr. Codding attended their meeting, demanded the right to be 
heard on the resolutions against him, met and defeated each 
one, and so won upon the people by his gallant and manly de- 
fense, that he gave the course of lectures to attentive audiences, 
without molestation. 

Mr. Codding established and edited the Advocate of Freedoin, 
the fii'st anti-slavery journal in Maine, and laid 'the founda- 
tion of the Liberty party in that State. In 18;5y, he accepted 
an invitation to Connecticut. Here he labored three years, 
with great power and success, winning, as he always did, life- 
lon<r friends and adniii-ers. He established the ChristUtn Free- 



ICHABOD CODDING. 9 

man (afterward called the Republican^ and edited by William H. 
Burleigh), 

In May, 1843, he came to Illinois to visit his aged mother, 
whose home was with his sister at Gooding's Grove, Will 
county. Between this brother and sister there existed, during 
his whole life, the most affectionate sympathy and confidence 
with the utmost harmony of views. Their religious experiences 
had run on almost parallel lines, and the broad applications of 
the divine law to all human relations, which he now so con- 
vincingly taught, met the heartiest response in her whole family 
of seven sons — one of whom, George H. Mason, gave his life, in 
the full martyr spirit, to the sacred cause of freedom, in the war. 
Mr. Codding had not purposed to remain longer than a few 
weeks in Illinois. But the great West was spread out before 
him; his neai'est relatives were here; and very soon we find him 
(June 15, 1843) present at the sixth anniversary meeting of the 
Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society, which was framed after the 
martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy. After the adjournment of the 
meeting, there was held a meeting of the Liberty party for 
the Fourth Congressional district, which then embraced the 
whole northern part of the State. The Western Citizen of that 
date says : " While the committee were making up their report, 
the convention was addressed in a most eloquent and soul-stir- 
ring speech from Ichabod Codding, fi'om Connecticut." 

Z. Eastman (editor of the Western Citizen, the anti-slavery or- 
gan for the northwest at that time). Dr. C. V. Dyer, James H. 
Collins, L. C. P. Freer, and indeed all who were earnestly in 
sympathy with the movement for freedom, were unanimous in 
the effort to have him remain in the West, desiring to add him 
to the force of lecturers already in the field in Illinois, who 
were Rev. Chauncey Cook (father of Hon. B. C. Cook), William 
T. Allen, John Cross, and H. St. Clair. He remained in Chi- 
cago, and gave a number of lectures in the old, long, low build- 
ing of the First Presbyterian Church. He carefully informed 
himself of the state of parties, of public feeling, and of personal 
relations to the movement, and was thus enabled to make the 
most pungent applications of principles, and in a very direct 
and forcible manner, to the exact conditions; so that he was 



lO WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

credited with remarkable insight. A figure he used, of the state 
of public men floating on the tide of public opinion (which many 
who heard him will recall), illustrates his piquant way of touch- 
ing his subject: "The fish that moves so gracefully and with 
such dignity in its course, headed dovm stream, the admiration 
of all beholders, is a dead fish! The others, that flutter and 
splurge, and spatter the water about, ai^e alive. It takes a live 
fish to move against the stream." With true psychologic power, 
he made every auditor see the picture in his mind — and the 
writer has seen the audience, as one person, look down to see 
the floating stream, the gracefully moving fish, and the splurg- 
ing, dashing, living one; and the impression made, of the differ- 
ence between a dead apathy and a living sympathy, was never 
to be effaced. 

Under the head "Mr. Codding," the Citizen of July 5, 1843, 
announced: "This devoted and talented lecturer has been en- 
gaged for a few weeks to talk to the people about liberty. He 
will make them feel it is worth as much now as when Patrick 
Henry said, 'G-ive me liberty or give me death;' and that it is 
as hard to be taxed millions now to support the system of 
slavery, as in 1776 to pay a few pence on a pound of tea, to 
support the British monarchy. " He commenced at St. Charles, 
Kane county, on the 11th of July. In a notice of this meeting, — 
of which the venerable Isaac Preston (whose daughter Mr. Cod- 
ding subsequently married) was chairman, — it was stated; "The 
meeting was addressed in a very impressive manner by Mr. 
Codding, and after making its nominations adjourned until 
evening, to the Universalist church, where a large audience 
listened to an effective speech from the same speaker." Here 
. was the beginning of this first canvass of the State. He trav- 
eled from county to county, visiting and speaking in all the 
larger towns. 

The Western Citizen of July 30 contained the following ac- 
count of a mass meeting of the people of Tjake county: 

Mr. Codding spoke for about five hours, in his eloquent and forcible 
manner. The mass of facts he presented in reference to the encroachments 
of the slave power and the cost of slavery to the free laborers of the North, 
who have riothiii},' to do with it actually, astonishetl his hearers, and set 



ICHABOD CODDING. II 

many of them upon a course of reflection and study which will lead them 
out of the fog cast around them by the chief men and rulers of the nation 
that had virtually repudiated the first of the rights of man, — personal lib- 
erty! 

In company with John A. Henderson (the Liberty party can- 
didate for congress, in opposition to " Long " John Wentworth) 
and Owen Lovejoy, he visited and held meetings in La Salle, 
Putnam, and Bureau counties. Into the middle and southern 
parts of the State, where no abolition lecturer had been, — where 
they were looked upon as traitors to the country, as plotters 
against the public peace, as outlaws and violators of the crim- 
inal code; and ranked with counterfeiters and horse-thieves, — 
they went. Mr. Codding was mobbed at Peoria, at McDonough, 
at Springfield, and at other places, serving in a cause that 
brought him neither thanks nor dollars, but hatred and scorn 
instead. It was of such heroes, of that cause and time, that 
Theodore Parker (whose work for human freedom had never been 
discounted) said : 

They win hard fare and hard toil. They lay up shame and obloquy. 
Theirs is the most painful of martyrdoms. Racks and faggots soon waft 
the soul to God; stern messengers, but swift, a boy could bear that pas- 
sage. . But the temptation of a long life of scorn and reproach, and want, 
and desertion of false friends, — to live blameless, though blamed, cut off 
from human sympathy, — that is the martyrdom of to-day. In another age, 
men shall be proud of these Puritans and Pilgrims of this day. Churches 
shall glory in their names, and celebrate their praise in sermon and in 
song. 

We are permitted to quote from Personal Reminiscences of 
Ichabod Codding^ by Z. Eastman, as follows : 

In the spring of 1844, Mr. Codding made with me the journey (overland, 
this was before the days of railroads) from Chicago to Cincinnati, to at- 
tend the great Liberty convention. It was at this convention that Chief 
Justice Chase delivered his great speech on the political aspects of the 
slave question, which had a powerful influence in molding the future ac- 
tion of the party, and in drawing large numbers to its support, and placed 
Mr. Chase fairly on the line which carried him to success as a politician 
on the side of the negro. The convention was held in the Millerite " taber- 
nacle " (a building extemporized for the grand crisis then expected by that 
sect). There were three thousand present, — men and women of sterling 
stuff, mainly from Indiana and Ohio,— some from Pennsylvania, a few 
from Kentucky, and even from Virginia. 



12 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

There were mutterings of mob violence upon this assemblage, and there 
was a feeling with all — hardly one escaped it — that it was best to be pru- 
dent in expression. There was, however, no keeping back the usual topics 
of discussion among Abolitionists, as to the sinfulness of slavery and the 
necessity of carrying the question to the ballot-box. A very exciting ques- 
tion then was, as to the duty of addressing the slaves, and advising them 
how to make their escape, and to take from their masters whatever was 
necessary to make their escape, whether it be clothing, horse, or boat. 
The teaching of the Cincinnati Abolition press, and the feeling of most of 
the Abolitionists, was that the "stealing question," as it was called, had 
best not be meddled with. 

Mr. Codding was not known in Cincinnati, even by name. The cause 
at the East, where he had lived, had a glory of its own; Ohio had another 
lustre; and the West, about Chicago, had no reputation at all. For a per- 
son like Mr. Codding to hail from Chicago, was like being without creden- 
tials. One of the topics which it was generally admitted would not be dis- 
cussed, was this " right to steal." The Abolitionists of Cincinnati, so near 
the line, and having so many fugitives from just across the border, had 
many burdens to bear, and it is not strange they did not desire to take up 
any other that might grow out of a moral question gotten up atPeterboro 
by Gerrit Smith. There will be in every assembly of three thousand, at 
least one or two imprudent and thoughtless persons. There was one such 
in this Liberty convention in Cincinnati, and this one applied the match 
to the train. A resolution was introduced bearing upon the right to com- 
municate with the slave upon the plantation. There was some shrinking 
from the issue, and the introduction of the resolution was deprecated at 
that particular time. Mr. Codding seized an opportunity to utter a few 
sentences from his seat in the audience; his voice rang out, clear as a bell. 
He was called to the platform, amid cries of " Who is he? " The chair- 
man informed the audience that it was Mr. Codding of Illinois. 

Mr. Chase was upon the platform, holding the ponderous manuscript of 
his great address; there also were Samuel Lewis, Edward Smith, John G. 
Fee, Gamaliel Bailey (editor of the National Era), and other prominent 
men from Kentucky and Virginia. Mr. Codding said: "I have a few 
words to utter in behalf of a class of people suffering great affliction, in 
bondage, and subject to all the cruelties and wrongs which all captive 
jjeople suffer. And we know what the judgment of all humanity is toward 
such a class, and what our feelings and conscience allow for them when 
they attempt to escape, — that they avail themselves of every means within 
their reach even to the taking of property and life. I have a brother capt- 
ured by the Indians on the Western plains. He is made subject to that 
barbarous race, half starved, cruelly treated, — his life even, in peril, — and 
cut off forever from the companionship of his friends and relatives, from 
father, aictther, wife and children. What shall my l)r()ther do? And what 



ICHABOD CODDING. 1 3 

shall I do for him? Slxall I send him no word of advice or sympathy? 
Shall he, because he is a captive, be placed beyond my sympathy or aid, 
or even my voice, if I can by any means reach him? You all say no! ' Speak 
to your brother if he can hear you; call to him to flee for his life. Tell 
him that you and all his fellow-kind will not only assist and shelter him 
when he shall flee to you, but you will even fly to his rescue. Send him a 
letter or a word in any way that will reach him, — send it by a carrier- 
pigeon, or by a spy, or a savage of the same tribe that has captured him, — 
and tell him of the route he should take: what points he should make 
in his flight, at what fort he may find protection, and where he will find 
friends waiting to receive him; tell him not to stand upon the order of 
his going, but to flee at once.' And you say to him, ' Take the rifle of the 
Indian to defend yourself with. Smite down the first savage who attempts 
to arrest your flight. Take your captor's pony, and don't stop to ask 
questions, nor pay for it, even if you are charged with stealing; if your 
horse drops under you, take the next one you can capture. If you come 
to a river you must cross, if you can find a boat, take it, — steal it, if you 
must, to get away. Take anything, do anything to escape from your cap- 
tivity with the savages. The world justifies you — for liberty is worth 
more to you than life itself.' Who would not give just such advice as this 
to a brother in captivity to the Indians? Who is there here who would not 
give just such advice to any person, brother or not, held a prisoner by the 
Indians? Who would not glory in aiding such a one to escape if he could, 
and protecting and feeding and sheltering and defending him from the 
savages who would recapture him? You know if you did not do it the civ- 
ilized public would spurn you, and say you were as bad or worse than the 
savages themselves. Now, are you not bound to do the same to the black 
man as to any other, white or yellow? You would even protect one Indian 
fleeing from another, — would you not do this, and give the same advice to 
a black slave just across the river in Kentucky, as you would to one of your 
own race a captive on the Western plains? ' In as much as ye have not 
done it unto one of the least of these ' — just over the Ohio river — ' ye have 
not done it unto me.' " 

This is but a feeble outline of a speech of fifteen minutes, that he poured 
out in a torrent of eloquence when he first ascended the platform, without 
preface, without allusion to the resolution or question in debate. The 
audience was spellbound. There was throughout the thousands seated on 
the closely-ranged benches, and standing on every foot of open space, the 
silence almost as of death. All eyes were fixed upon the speaker, and 
every mind open and eager to catch every word he uttered. His voice was 
clear and musical, and could be heard in its lowest tones to the most dis- 
tant parts of the house; and he spoke with an energy and telling gesture 
that gave new force to every sentiment. It was a scene of sublime inter- 
est. There was after the delivery of that short speech, but one opinion, — 



14 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

the reverse of the one held when he began, — that, at whatever cost or 
peril, the black fugitive from slavery should be aided and sheltered, as any 
other captive fleeing from oppression. This was one of the most magnifi- 
cent triumphs of oratory I ever listened to. 

The late Chief Justice Chase, some years after, speaking to me of Mr. 
Codding, said: " I have heard Webster, Clay, and most of the great ora- 
tors of this country, but none of them could equal Codding, and I regard 
him as the greatest of orators. When I say 'greatest orator,' I wish to 
qualify the expression. Many may be ranked higher by the usual stand- 
ards; but by the standard which after all should measure the power of 
oratory, — that of effect produced upon a large and promiscuous audience, — 
Codding surpassed any speaker I ever heard." He then alluded to the 
speech at the great Liberty convention at Cincinnati. He said: "The 
effect produced, and the transformation of opinion which followed, was far 
beyond any conception I ever had of the power of oratory. But a part of 
the result, doubtless, was due to the fact that he was right, and had the 
reason and the conscience of the people with him." I have given literally 
Mr. Chase's own words. 

"We may here add — what ilr. Eastman did not know — that 
Mr. Chase verified this estimate of Mr. Codding at the time, by 
offering him a full partnership in his law practice as an advo- 
cate, with a guarantee of $5,000 per annum from the first. No 
more promising career could have been opened to him, nor one 
in which his gift of oratory would find a wider range; but in 
entering it he would in some degree turn away from the appeal 
of the enslaved, and the goal of his desii'e. He weighed the 
values on either side in the "philosopher's scales, " and his serv- 
ices were " retained " for all the oppressed. Mr. Codding was 
engaged by the anti-slavery men of Ohio to speak in all the 
larger towns. At Dayton (the home of Vallandigham), his 
speeches caused much commotion, and exhibition of mob su- 
premacy over law. With Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, he can- 
vassed the northern part of Ohio. After his return to Illinois, 
he again made a lecturing tour of that State. The mob spirit 
was rife in many places, and he was often under the strain of 
severe provocation and trial; but he was always master of him- 
self, and consequently of his position. This power of self-mas- 
tery, which made him cool amid heat, and calm amid storm, 
was sublime. It crowned the character of the hero that he was ; 
it made him always invincible, and beautifully illustrated Solo- 



ICHABOD CODDING. I 5 

moa's estimate of the grandest style of heroic character, " He 
that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that 
ruleth his own spirit, than he that taketh a city. " At one time, 
while lecturing, a shower of eggs was hurled at him. Pausing 
a few moments, with one eye badly hurt, his face and hair drip- 
ping with the slimy missiles, he looked round smiling, and 
humorously said, " Well, boys, I'm fond of eggs, but really I 
would like to have them done up in a little different style. 
Maybe, in the haste of your generosity, you did not think of 
that." At this the mob shouted, and made no further disturb- 
ance while he proceeded with his lecture. On another occasion 
in Madison county (of which Alton is the chief town), while 
lecturing, a ruffian leaped upon the platform, seized him by the 
cravat, and presented a pistol. The miscreant quailed under 
the fearless bearing and piercing e3'^e of his intended victim, and 
the pistol dropped from his unnerved hand to the floor. 

The subjects discussed in the course of lectures for this second 
tour of Illinois, we find on a placard advertisement, as follows: 

1. Slavery — its nature and crime. 

2. The brand it leaves on master and slave. 

3. Its relation to the Federal Government. 

4. Its control of the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon 
liberty. 

5. It thwarts the great ends of good government, impoverishes soil, pre- 
vents invention, degrades labor, corrupts morals, and tends to national in- 
security and bankruptcy. 

6. A comparison of the prosperity of the slave States with that of th e 
free States, in all the elements that make a prosperous people. 

7. The colored race, its capacity and destiny. 

8. The struggle between slavery and liberty -^natural, necessary, mor- 
tal; and there can be no release in this war! 

His work was never a burden. To px'each and talk of the 
fundamental principles of liberty and their applications, seemed 
the spontaneous outcome of his simple-hearted affection for 
truth and his genuine love of doing good, without a selfish 
thought of reward. Though often exhausted by prolonged 
speaking, he had the rare faculty of dropping his load of re- 
sponsibility, and joining in hilarious sports with the boys, or 
entering into the social enjoyments of the family circle. He 



l6 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

invariably attracted the young people, and in his intercourse 
they felt the elevation of his tone, — not painfully, as far above 
them, but from their own plane, — as he showed them the clear- 
cut path of real life. His supply of reading for the intervals 
of labor, was also a perennial resource for rest and refreshment. 
He was one of the earliest readers and admirers, in this country, 
of Thomas Carlyle, and Emerson's essays were his favorite com- 
panions. His colloquial powers were surprising. No one who 
met him socially could soon forget his frank, cordial greeting, 
nor the sunny, sparkling stream of his discourse. Any one — 
in mansion or cabin, whether a philosopher, or unlettered — would 
soon be spell-bound by his fascinating tongue; and the remem- 
brance of the remarkable stranger would always be pleasant and 
refreshing, like " the charm of earliest birds." 

He lost no time in idle rest, and especially enjoyed the Sun- 
day labor for which he always planned, wherever the day of 
rest might find him — because through the religious element he 
might touch a tenderer chord, and produce a deeper conviction 
of truth. We find the following account of one of these extem- 
porized Sunday meetings held in the grounds of the court-house 
in Morgan county (we quote from the Morgan Joxirnal). After 
"saying how much he had been prejudiced against Mr. Codding's 
political positions (till on the day before he bad heard them from 
his own lips), the writer says: 

Nor could I associate religion with the court-house, where lawyers and 
politicians make their mercenary speeches — it had never occurred to me 
that a genuine Christian sermon could be preached in the shadow of this 
so-called "temple of justice." My prejudice was further deepened on 
learning that two of the ministers of our village had refused to read a 
notice of this discourse. But T had not listened five minutes before my 
prejudice had vanished. The fanning breeze, the overhanging branches, 
the silent attention of the audience, the deep fervor and devotion of the 
speaker, seemed to hallow the place as God's own temple of earth, sky, and 
beautiful foliage, while the very spirit of worship seemed infused in the 
air. Mr. Codding read a passage from the Scripture, made a few simple 
explanations of it, and offered prayer. Then, as a text, he read the twen- 
tieth verse of the fourth chapter of John's first epistle, "For be that 
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he 
hath not seen ? " He showed the nature of love to God and to men, and 
the duty of this love as binding on all his children, and growing out of the 



ICHABOD CODDING. l"] 

relation of man to God, and of men to each other, as one human family — 
making the regard and justice shown by one man toward another the test 
and measure of his love to God, and the "fruits" by which the real 
Christian is known. 

After burning this thought of brotherly love carried into the daily life, 
into the very souls of his hearers for nearly an hour, by the most forcible 
reasoning and apt illustration, he closed by showing vividly the contrast 
between a lifeless profession of religion and a practical obedience to the 
law of Christ, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them." The whole discourse was one of great power 
and eloquence. One good thing there certainly was, in this day's worship 
in God's great temple, people of all sects, and of none, came together, 
looked one another in the face, and heard the gospel of Christ, to go home 
feeling that the sectarian wall was not half so high as before. 

Ill January, 1846, two members of the executive committee 
of the Illinois State Anti-Slavery Society — Isaac Preston and 
R. P. Derickson — issued a call for a convention of the Liberty 
Party, to be held at St. Charles, Kane county, by letters of in- 
vitation, as follows: "Firmly believing that the time has ar- 
rived when, by prompt, judicious, and energetic action on our 
part, an Anti-Slavery member maybe returned to Congress 
from this Congressional district, we earnestly invite you to 
meet with us, and take such action as in your judgment may be 
best, etc." These were written by Miss Julia Preston, and 
addressed to every known Anti-Slavery man in the district, and 
to many outside its boundary. It was answered by an almost 
unanimous attendance at the convention held in March, which 
was enthusiastic and spirited beyond the hopes of even its pro- 
jectors. John M. Wilson was its president. James H. Collins 
was first nominated as representative in Congress, but posi- 
tively declined. The convention then favored the nomination 
of Mr. Codding; but some of his friends strenuously opposed it, 
believing that, as a candidate, his usefulness as a lecturer would 
be restricted, — that his vocation was that of an orator, to in- 
struct the people in their moral and political duties. Owen 
Lovejoy was then most cordially nominated, and was before 
the people as a candidate, till his election by the Republican 
party in 1856. 

In 184:6 Mr. Codding became a resident of Wisconsin, where 
he remained nearly three years, serving the cause of human 



1 8 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

welfare by presenting the issues of the " irrepressible conflict" 
between truth and error, liberty and slavery, God and all evil 
powers; by preaching and lecturing; also establishing the Amer- 
iccm Freeman, of Prairieville (later Waukesha), the first anti- 
slavery paper in that Territory. In 1848, he was tendered an 
election as United States senator, but declined, saying "It 
would interfere with his mission;" and it was largely through 
his influence that Charles Durkee became the choice of the same 
legislature in his stead. In 1849, he returned to Illinois and 
retraversed the State, speaking in every county-seat, and in all 
the larger towns, to audiences frequently numbering thousands. 
The rapid progress of events — the new and bold claim of the 
South that the constitution guaranteed the right to take slavery 
into the territories, and the denial of the power of Congress to 
prohibit it — had brought the whole subject of slavery before 
Congress and the people. Henceforth the Liberty party be- 
came the Free Soil party. The call for "Light, more light," 
came from all quarters, and every effort was redoubled to re- 
spond in due measure to the need. He spoke in every county 
and in all the larger towns of the State of Iowa. The influence of 
these tours can only be estimated by the steadily advancing in- 
crease of the sentiment and vote for freedom. It may be truly said 
that he did a great pioneer work in this cause, in Maine, Vermont, 
Connecticut, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. Late in 1853, Mr. 
Codding returned to Connecticut. We quote the following from 
the Hartford Re2)ublican: 

NcAU Haven, June 6, 1854. — Mr. Editor: Our city was favored last 
evening with an address on the Slavery Question, from Mr. Codding, of 
Illinois. He spoke in the Representative Hall: the house was crowded, 
many were unable to find seats. As an orator there are few men who 
surpass him. In power to thrill and stir an audience, there has been no 
man with us for a long time who could compare with him. His clarion 
notes ring in our ears, and will so long as we labor in the cause for which 
they were uttered. However, the most marked feature in Mr. Codding's 
address was not his oratory, but the perfect mastery of the subject which 
he exhibitetl. He seemed fit indeed to talk to legislators. He first looked 
at the subject ethically; then at its growth as an institution in our coun- 
try, and the purpose of our Fathers respecting it. He then touched upon 
the secret of the Slave Power: referring it to the arrogance which the system 
tself produced in the owners, and to the immense pecuniary interests at 



ICHABOD CODDING. 



19 



stake; and in conclusion dwelt upon the present crisis. Though he touched 
upon so many phases of the subject he treated none of them meagrely, and 
I doubt if there was one in the house whom he failed to convince of the 
truth of every proposition he advocated. Whether all the voting will cor- 
respond, is another question. Would that we had more men like Mr. Cod- 
ding. Men who speak out boldly because God has given them hearts that 
cannot be still in the presence of great wrongs! and such men are to bear 
an important part in the long struggle before us. 

In the Free West of Chicago, July 20, 1854, we find the fol- 
lowing: 

MR. CODDING. 

This old and favorite advocate of free principles has returned to Illinois. 
He has spent the winter and spring in Connecticut, where he has aided ma- 
terially by his eloquence and counsel the success of the Anti-Nebraska 
Party and the election of Francis Gillette to the United States senate. 
Connecticut has recently passed a bill for the protection of fugitives from 
slavery upon her soil, as well as resolutions and acts repudiating the 
Nebraska Swindle. These were forwarded in their early stages by the 
efforts of Mr. Codding, while laboring in New Haven, and addressing on 
various occasions meetings composed of members of the legislature. 

In the fall of this year (1854) he made his great reply to 
Stephen A. Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska bill and the ex- 
tension of slavery, in Joliet, Geneva, and other places, just 
following the speech to which he replied. It is not possible to 
summafize the points of this speech (for this would be to repro- 
duce the whole discussion), but it will be well remembered that 
he exposed, in the light of truth and of facts^ the sophistries of 
Douglas, with characteristic clearness and power; and this was 
proved by its practical results on the popular vote. Although 
Douglas was returned to the senate by the flagrant apportion- 
ment of the state, the popular majority for Lincoln was 4, 0G5. 
In 1860, Mr. Codding published a " Republican manual " for 
the campaign (Lincoln and Hamlin), which he revised and 
adapted to the campaign of 18(54 (Lincoln and Johnson) — en- 
dorsed by J. F. Farnsworth, I. N. Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, J. H. 
Bryant, and Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, as " covering the whole 
Republican argument. " It was widely circulated, and served 
an important use in the canvass. 

During the period of the War of Secession, he was if possi- 



20 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

ble more alive and active than ever. No man watched with 
keener solicitude or comprehension its shifting drama, or did 
more in private life to give it a successful issue. In Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa, and Illinois he addressed the people in all the larger 
towns, often speaking six successive evenings on the great prin- 
ciples involved in the war, and stimulating the spirit of patri- 
otic heroism. From his speech at Baraboo, on the Fourth of 
July, 1863, before a vast concourse of people in the open air, we 
extract a few passages : ' 

' The full text of this speech is given in the Baraboo (Wis.) Hejmblic, 
July 22, 1863: 

Mr. President and fellow citizens: — The circumstances under which 
we meet to-day are peculiar and very trying. They exclude from our minds 
all temptations to self adulation and vainglory. We are in no mood to-day 
to listen with self-complacency to a high-sounding rhetoric, lauding to the 
skies the old Declaration as an incomparable statement of unmeaning ab- 
stractions and "glittering generalities." No, no! The fiery ordeal through 
which we are now passing has brought us en rapport with the very spirit 
of Jefferson when he penned it; and that of the Fathers, when they adopted 
it: and of the Revolutionary army, when they defended it in a baptism of 
blood. To-day as we hear it read, it seems a note sent forth from the di- 
vine harmonies — an inspiration, a political evangel, the very voice of God. 
Its proclamation was an epoch, — it opened a new career: it was the great 
era in political history. 

The American historian, George Bancroft, a noble and life-long demo- 
crat, speaking of this wonderful document, says: "The bill of rights 
which it [the Declaration] promulgates, is of rights that are older than hu- 
man constitutions, and spring from the eternal justice that is older than 
the state. * * * Two political theories divide the world. One founded 
the commonwealth on reasons of state — the policy of expediency; the other 
on the iinmutaiile principles of morals. The new republic, as it took its 
place among the powers of the world, proclaimed its faith ip the truth and 
reality and unchangeableness of freedom, virtue, and right. The heart of 
Jefferson in writing the Declaration, and of Congress in adopting it, beat 
for all humanity. This assertion of rights was made for the entire world of 
mankind, and all coming generations, without any exceptions whatever; for 
the proposition which admits of exceptions cannot be self-evident." There 
had been other republics attempted on the ground that some men are 
equal, that the well-to-do and aristocratic classes are all equal; but never 
before had the divine word, " all men are created equal," fallen from the 
lips of a whole people, as the ground on which they assert their own inde- 
pendence, and on which they propose to build a government. But, alas 



ICIIABOD CODDING. 21 

He lived to see this object of his life-long labor realized. 
When he departed he left no chattel slave behind him. 

The death of Owen Lovejoy, in March, 1804, produced a pi'o- 
found impression upon the whole country. Mr. Codding was 
deeply moved by that event. A correspondent of the Boston 
Commomcealth, who was present at the funeral service held at 
Princeton, Bureau county, Illinois (the home of Lovejoy), writes 
to that paper, under the date of August 23, 1875: 

Dr. Edward Beecher preached the sermon. But there was a tall, comely, 
bowed form beside Mr. Beecher in the pulpit, whose silent presence was 
more than any sermon, and that man was the Rev. Ichabod Codding. The 
funeral was in the morning. In the afternoon, the distinguished states- 
men and orators from Washington and other parts of the United States 
eulogized, in rich language, the character of Mr. Lovejoy. But the deep 
sympathies of the people were not reached till Mr. Codding spoke. 
Bowed in sorrow, the dark-hued, black-haired, eagle-eyed Westerner 
passed up the aisle. There was a hush, and soon the indefinable magne- 



for us! we could not hold this sublime position, and in rigid justice make 
an application of this great idea. * * * 

We have had a great educational history and we are now passing the 
graduating degree,— a fearful ordeal, a baptism of fire and blood. If we 
stand this test, we shall make liberty "organic and permanent" on this 
continent, and shall lay the " foundations of many generations, shall be 
the builders of the old waste places, the restorers of paths to dwell in." 
This thought is significant, and calls to mind the truth that the Union 
party, the war party, is the party of 1776, and has evinced the ancient 
faith; and now that a constitutional way is open and a great necessity is 
upon us, we propose to make Liberty organic and perpetual. * * * Our 
national judgment-day has come ! the grand assize is set. Prom the four 
quarters of the globe, men are looking on. From the battlements of heaven, 
a mighty host, among whom in serried ranks stand our Revolutionary sires, 
are bending their anxious gaze upon our conflict. The judge of quick and 
dead, holding aloft in our midst the manacled negro, in a voice that pene- 
trates the utmost bounds of civilization, and reverberates through the eter- 
nal ages, cries, " Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye 
did it not to me." The genii of Liberty, hovering still on poised wings 
over our dear native land, are almost ready to exclaim, " Let us depart.'''' 
But from the loyal heart of this great people, wells up one mighty prayer: 
•'Stay, — oh, stay! ye beautiful representatives of the Divine Love, the 
Divine Justice, the Divine Humanity; for we pledge our lives, our fortunes, 
and our sacred honor to give to our native laud Justice: to plant under 
these bending heavens one republican government. So help us God! " 



22 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

tism of the true orator and great soul concentrated all eyes and all hearts. 
Increasing wonder lighted the faces of titled speakers, as they now beheld 
the man who had been known to them only as an Abolitionist. Mr. Cod- 
ding was about 50 years of age, was expelled from college in his youth 
because he would lecture on anti-slavery, was mobbed in both New Eng- 
land and the West; he had stood shoulder to shoulder with his life-long 
friend through all the dark days of the cause, and now his surcharged, 
glowing, over-flowing soul was equal to the occasion. The sympathies of 
the audience were met, when his vivid eloquence culmina4;ed in the ques- 
tion, '' Will you give the black man his rights? " The quick response was 
in every soul. 

From Mr. Codding's address at the Owen Lovejoy memorial 
meeting held at Princeton, June 9, 1864, we quote the following, 
as equally appropriate as though it had beeu spoken of himself; 
it is obviously written out of his own experience. After speak- 
ing of different classes of great men, — military, scientific, etc., — 
he said : 

Owen Lovejoy belonged to the moral heroic type of great men. I have 
alluded to the unpopular and odious character of the cause espoused. 
Slaveholders, or their supple tools, were entrenched in nearly all the high 
or influential places of the government. Slaveholders, or their tools, con- 
trolled the great national religious bodies. The slavery spirit pervaded 
and poisoned our literature, both secular and religious. The American 
Tract Society, and the great missionary bodies, frowned upon the spirit of 
anti-slavery, and openly conciliated and petted the slaveholders and their 
interest. Efforts \Yere made by the Home Missionary societies to starve 
anti-slavery preachers into submission to the spirit of the church, which 
was the spirit of concession to slavery. The handful of slaveholders pos- 
sessed a capital of one billion, two hundred million dollars, in human 
bodies and human souls. The great staple of the South, cotton^ so valua- 
ble in itself, had in addition a factitious importance, by filling the place df 
gold in paying our foreign debts. This linked the importers of foreign 
goods (who were principally in the free States) to the interests and spirit 
of the cotton-growers. 

The more prominent slaveholders bad plenty of money and leisure. They 
made politics a profession, and did nothing else than study how to govern 
the nation in the interest of slavery. The wealthy among them imitated 
the aristocratic cla.sses in Europe in the style and costline.ss of their 
costumes and e(iuipages, and became in the hot season of the year, the 
" lions " at our Northern watering-places, — giving shape and tone to 
what is called " high life" in the North, leavening all " uppertendom " 
with their hatred of Abolitionists and contempt for all free negroes. Bound 
together by one great interest, the three hundred thousand slaveholders 



ICHABOD CODDING. 23 

trailed at their triumphant chariot-wheels the two great political parties 
of the nation (a vast majority of whom were at the North), and poured, 
through all their leading Northern organs, the debauching influence of 
their doctrines. 

From 1834 to '40, in the freest country under heaven, -whose constitu- 
tion expressly guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press, and the 
right of petition, and all of whose State constitutions did the same, — it 
was highly doubtful whether men would be permitted to express their sen- 
timents if adverse to slavery. Giddings is expelled from Congress, for pre- 
senting a set of resolutions that we all now believe, and which were infer- 
able from the decisions of the United States supreme court. A desperate 
effort is made to expel the venerable and incorruptible John Quincy 
Adams. Mobs are rife all over our country. Garrison is led through the 
streets of Boston, with a rope around his neck, to be hung. Large sums 
•of money are offered for the heads of anti-slavery men. Black laws multi- 
ply; and to crown all, "the voice of a brother's blood cries from the 
ground." A darkness that could be felt, seemed fast settling upon our 
country. The governor of New York — in reply to the official demands of 
the Southern States, to suppre.ss all discussion of the slavery question at 
the North — said, in substance, that " if the mob violence with which the 
anti-slavery men were met, did not cool their ardor and stop the agitation, 
he should feel called upon to recommend laws to suppress such agitation." 
The governor of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, said in an official mes- 
sage, about the time of the murder of Lovejoy, that, " in the estimation of 
eminent jurists, the anti-slavery men were guilty of a high misdemeanor 
and were indictable at common law." This was previous to any political 
action on the part of the Abolitionists, and had reference to the discussion 
■of slavery as a great moral evil. 

The demon of slavery was omnipresent, influencing every mind, cmtrol 
ling every thing. 

The question was forced upon us with terrible significance, "Shall free- 
dom of speech and of the press, and the right of petition, be taken away? 
Shall the last citadel of republican liberty be surrendered, and her watch- 
fires be extinguished, on all our hills and in all our Northern vales? Shall 
the spirit of God — the spirit of love, of liberty, of humanity — be insulted, 
and we be dumb, the slaves of slaves? " A divinely prepared few said, 
with the full meaning of the word, " Xo! " 

It was one of those crises when God inspires men in different parts of 
the world with the same grand principles and the same holy motives. So 
under his supreme guidance, this little band went forth in the martyr 
spirit, from conquering to conquest. History will record that God by them 
saved the country, and the cause of republican liberty throughout the 
world, from being put back two hundred years. Conspicuous among these 
was Owen Lovejoy, a young man, assailed on the one hand by friendly re- 



24 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

monstrance, and on the other by mob violence. Poor, with fines, impris- 
onments, and more poverty in prospect, he rose to those sublime heights, 
where all is light, serenity, and harmony; lighted his torch at heaven's own 
fires; and, Pallas-like, leaped forth with a war-shout, full-grown and armed 
for the conflict. The great Soul of All flowed into our brother, saying, 
" Say not, ' I am a child,' for 1 am with thee; gird up thy loins like a man, 
and speak all I command thee. Be not afraid of men's faces, for I will 
make thee a defenced city, a column of steel, and walls of brass. Speak 
then against the whole land of sinners — against the kings thereof, the 
princes thereof, its people and its priests. They may fight against thee, 
but they shall not prevail, for I am with thee." 

This quotation is extended beyond our first design, in order 
to show the moral grandeur of the position they alike chose, in 
early manhood, in full view and with full comprehension of all 
it implied. The love of God and of humanity found in each 
the same spirit of devotion to the cause of the dumb and the 
oppressed; the same unwavering faith led each to show forth 
that love with equal courage and constancy, to their life's end. 

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, 
'Ere her cause brings fame and profit; and 'tis prosperous to be just. 
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, 
Doubting in his abject spirit till his lord is crucified, 
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they once denied. 

Of Mr. Codding's work as a Christian minister, we may say 
that his stated ministerial labors extended over a period of 
many years — ai Lockport, Joliet, Princeton, Bud a, Tiskihva, 
and Bloomington, Illinois; in Iowa City, Iowa; at Waukesha, 
Fond du Lac, Delton, Kilbourn, Reedsburg, and Baraboo, in 
Wisconsin. It was in this relation of pastor that he drew out 
most deeply and warmly the affections of the people. Those 
who knew him best loved him most — loved him as a friend, com- 
panion, and teacher. They cherish his words, and his influence 
uj)on them, as most salutary and precious. 

In his reading of Scripture, the very light of Heaven seemed to 
beam through and shiiio upon the Woi^d, so that it came to the 
mind full of spirit and life; and in ])rayer he led the assembly 
to realize the depths of the divine love and the good of a life 
of obedience to the divine commands. He taught that the test 
(if Christianity is charity, often cjuoting these words, "By this 
shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 



ICHABOD CODDING. 2$ 

another." He gave no place to hardness or bitterness of feel- 
ing toward any, though his slanderers and persecutors were 
not few. He recognized, as of the church and kingdom of the 
Lord, every heartfelt prayer to God, every kind thought for 
others, and every faithful step in obedience to his commands, 
in whomsoever it might be found. 

His strong common-sense, his utter sincerity, courage, and 
faith, with the discipline of his life of sti'uggle with the powers 
of evil, made him free and fearless in the investigation of truth, 
and he loved it in all its applications to human life and destiny. 
Doubtless, this characteristic love of truth and free thought 
followed him into the domain of theological inquiry, and ren- 
dered him somewhat unobservant of ecclesiastical decrees and 
formulas; but his devout reverence toward God and his Word, 
his life of faith and prayer, exemplified by disinterested service 
for the lowly, the friendless, and the oppressed, attest his gen- 
uine character. He was fond of philosophical study; was fa- 
miliar with the representative minds of this century; and al- 
though he had scarcely begun a careful reading of Swedenborg, 
his sermons and religious lectures bore marked traces of the 
doctrines of the New Church, which will be readily recognized 
in the following subjects, which we find on a placard adver- 
tisement of a course of lectures: 

1. Religion without humanity, not the Christian religion. 

2. Christian salvation is salvation from sin, not merely from its penalties; 
or, " What must I do to be saved ? " "If thou will enter into life, keep 
the commandments." 

.3. Heaven and hell not localities, but states of the heart or aflfections. 

4. God erects no barrier between himself and the human soul, in any 
world. 

5. The simple fact of a natural death effects no change in the man's 
character. 

6. The rational argument against the popular view of the resurrection of 
the body. 

7. The rational and Scriptural view of the resurrection of the dead. 

8. Miracles — supersensuous, not supernatural exhibitions of the divine 
power; above, notcontrari/ to, Nature. 

9. The law of God never suspends its penalties, nor the love of God its 
benedictions. 

10. Obedience the safeguard of investigation, " If any man will do his 
will he shall know of the doctrine." 



26 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

His opposition to chattel slavery was a natural foundation 
for his advocacy of mental and spiritual freedom — freedom not 
to give rein to lust and license, but as an essential condition of 
spiritual life and growth. His power in presenting this need 
of the mind, intensified the suspicions of his clerical brethren; 
for though he had been Congregationally ordained in Wauke- 
sha in 1846, he was from the first regarded by them with 
distrust, as unsound in the faith and untrustworthy as a spir- 
itual teacher and guide. The feeling of many of them was very 
bitter and denunciatory, and the treatment he received from 
them — which he felt to be so undeserved and cruel — stung him 
to the heart; and it may be ranked (though done with more re- 
finement) as arising from the same spirit as that expressed in the 
Eushville (Schuyler county, lU.)Tim€sot June27, 1866, as follows: 

We are pleased to observe that Ichabod Codding is dead. He is the 
same contemptible Abolitionist preacher who, some years ago, trampled 
the American flag under his feet, and who always used the pulpit as a po- 
litical rostrum. We are glad he is gone. It is right he should have died, 
or he would not have been called home. The murderers of civil liberty, 
the enemies of the white man, the instigators of the late war, are being 
called from earth. Lincoln, Brough, Henry Winter Davis, Codding, and a 
whole list of others equally infamous, are gone, and the country is better 
off without them. 

But his feeling toward them was often expressed by him in the ! 
words of the prayer of the martyr Stephen, " Lord, lay not this 
sin to their charge." With true Christian charity, he realized 
their state and their temptations, and earnestly wrought on in 
the field set before him, confident in the promise, " Every plant 
which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. " 

In private life, Mr. Codding was above reproach, eminently 
courteous, and social. He was a devoted husband, and, as a 
father, most tender and solicitous for the highest welfare of his 
children. His frequent and sometimes prolonged absence from 
home was made up in part by most charming letters to them; and 
his home correspondence would fill an interesting volume. We 
quote from a memorial of Mr. Codding, written by Francis 
Gillette (of Hartford, Conn.), July, 1866: 

Over the character of the stern and infie.Kible reformer, a childlike sim- 
plicity threw a softening grace and beauty. He was but " a child of larger 



ICHABOD CODDING. 2/ 

growth,"— buoyant, ingenuous, sincere, hearty, trustful. He delighted 
most of all in the society of children, — entered into their sports and jolli- 
ties with the keenesl^zest; frolicked, romped, and laughed with them; and 
was always welcomed to their pastimes as a most loved and genial play- 
mate. Like the sword of Orlando, his trenchant blade, which cleaved 
giants, became soft as a silken streamer when it touched a child. This 
charming simplicity and freshness, characterized the man everywhere — 
on the platform, in the pulpit, and in the social circle. They were the 
constant outflow of his large, loving heart. Possessing a portly and com- 
manding person: an eye through which the soul flashed its beautiful light: 
a voice full, rich, and musical: a manner and elocution, spontaneous and 
pleasing; it was a joy, an exhilaration, to see him rise to the grandeur of 
his great themes, and listen to his entrancing eloquence. 

In his words of highest inspiration, his countenance glowed with a 
transfiguring radiance. He seemed the impersonation of truth battling 
falsehood, of justice rebuking wrong, of honor chastising meanness, of 
liberty frowning upon oppression — of humanity herself invoking heaven 
and earth to her rescue. He swept the chords of the human heart, with a 
master-hand; indignation or pity, joy or grief, laughter or tears, alternated 
at his will. His power lay in links of logic welded together by the fires of 
the heart. His paramount aim was to convince the understanding, and in- 
form the judgment. He was always entertaining; wit played along his, 
brilliant track, anecdote enlivened the sombre parts of his discourse, and 
satire now and then emitted its lightning shaft. He thought lightly of 
money: and of the little that fell into his hands he gave freely. He had 
no vulgar ambition, choosing rather to be a humble toiler in the master's 
vineyard, than to bind upon his brow the wreath of fame. He was one of 
those grand, royal souls, " framed in the prodigality of nature," which bore 
all over it the stamp of nobility — ''a combination and a form indeed, 
whereon every God did seem to set his seal , to give the world assurance 
of a man." 

In May, a few weeks before he was called to depart, in his 
last conversation with his sister, he said, in referring to his 
life, labors, and experiences: "Yes, if I could have put my con- 
science in my pocket, my worldly standing would be quite dif- 
ferent. But I would not have it otherwise, t know I have done 
some good. If I travel by railroad, or attend public gatherings, 
invariably some stranger comes to me and takes my hand, say- 
ing, 'You don't know me, but words of truth from your lips 
[naming time and place] changed the whole course of my life, 
and I must express my gratitude.'' Yes, it pays. I have sown 
the seed. It will bring forth fruirt. " 



28 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

On the 27th of May, 1866, Mr. Codding left Bloomington, where 
he was statedly preaching in the Unitarian church, for Baraboo, 
Wisconsin, tremove his family to the former place. When he 
reached home he was very ill; gastric fever followed, which 
terminated his life on the 17th of June. His last words were 
in beautiful harmony with his noble life: "God reigns; it is 
all right; there can be no failure. " And soon after, raising his 
hands with great effort, he laid them on the heads of his four 
little children, bade his beloved wife "farewell," and, with the 
coming glory shining in his eyes, he whispered, "All sweet, — 
all blessed ! " 



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